mcp-youtube

MCP.Pizza Chef: anaisbetts

This small helper grabs the subtitle track from any YouTube video that has one and hands the full text to your assistant, so it can summarize, pull an exact quote, answer questions, or turn a talk into notes without you watching the whole thing. It runs on your own computer using the free yt-dlp tool, which you install first with Homebrew or WinGet. No account, subscription, or paid key is involved.

Notes

Web/Research

Use This MCP server To

Summarize an hour-long conference talk into a short brief Pull the exact quote I remember from a video Turn a tutorial video into written step-by-step notes Ask questions about a lecture without rewatching it Compare what three videos say about the same topic

README

YouTube MCP Server

Uses yt-dlp to download subtitles from YouTube and connects it to claude.ai via Model Context Protocol. Try it by asking Claude, "Summarize the YouTube video <>". Requires yt-dlp to be installed locally e.g. via Homebrew.

How do I get this working?

Install yt-dlp (Homebrew and WinGet both work great here)
Now, install this via mcp-installer, use the name @anaisbetts/mcp-youtube

mcp-youtube FAQ

Is this project still maintained?

Yes. The latest release landed in June 2026 and the repository is active.

Which apps does it work in?

It was built for Claude, and works in any app that supports MCP servers.

Do I need a paid key or account?

No. Nothing here charges you, and no sign-in is required.

Can I use this to summarize a video that has no captions?

No. It reads the subtitle track, so a video without captions gives it nothing to work with.

How hard is setup?

Install yt-dlp once with Homebrew or WinGet, then add this server to your app's settings.

Does it download the whole video?

No, only the subtitle text, which keeps it fast and light on disk.